1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wire winding of bobbins and more particularly to multi-spindle machines for winding wire about the terminals of bobbins.
2. Description of the Related Art
At the present time various bobbin wire winding machines are commercially available. In certain of these machines from 2 to 8 bobbins may be wound simultaneously.
In addition to winding the wire about the bobbins, the machines also wind wire about the extending terminals ("tags") of the bobbins. For example, each bobbin may have from 2 to 16 terminals, each of which must be wound with wire.
In such winding machines, the wire is wound about the bobbins at high speed; for example, the spindles rotate at 18,00 r.p.m. However, the wrapping of the terminals is relatively slow because the wire feed nozzles are moved in x, y and z directions to approximate a series of circles around each terminal. FIG. 1 shows the four-step movement, x and y movements, required to obtain one wire turn about a terminal. The machine operates under control of a programmed digital computer so that the series of movement commands may be less than a few milliseconds. However, the physical movement of the plate, on which the wire feed nozzles are mounted, is much slower, due to the mass of the x-y mechanism and the limitations on the speed of the step motors which drive the x-y system. For example, it may take two full seconds (2000 milliseconds) to obtain four turns of the wire about a terminal.
It has been observed, in some cases, particularly with bobbins having over four terminals, that it takes longer to wind the wire a few turns on each terminal than it does to wind the entire bobbin with wire.